She Was a Phantom of Delight

“Phantom” depicts three stages of the poet’s relationship to his subject and how he perceives her. At first, as shown in Stanza 1, he seems to know little about her other than the extraordinary impression her physical and spiritual aspects make on him. She is like a spirit dropping in from some otherworldly region, not fully integrated into the material world. She is a “Shape” (Line 9) and an “Image” (Line 9) rather than an identifiable person. She is “sent” (Line 3) (from Heaven, perhaps, or at least at the behest of a higher power) “to be a moment’s ornament” (Line 4). The latter image suggests that, in the poet’s eyes, she served as some inspiring decoration to each passing moment in time, without being intrinsically attached to the moment. She floats above it all, so to speak, drawing the poet’s attention but disturbing him, too, since he does not quite grasp who (or what) she is. It is this puzzlement that gives rise to the final line of the stanza, which announces her power “to haunt, to startle, and way-lay” (Line 10). She shocks the poet out of complacency. First love is often described in these terms: a sudden awareness that something new, unknown, and precious has entered one’s life.

If, in Stanza 1, the alluring but mysterious Mary seems to exist outside the mainstream of life, in Stanza 2 she gains a firmer identity, both in Wordsworth’s life and in his perceptions of her. They now have a real relationship. This is strongly suggested in Line 16, in the “Sweet records, promises as sweet” that he sees in her face (which are, no doubt, reciprocated). They share cherished memories and hope to accumulate more as their relationship develops.

The poet does not seem so swept away by her as he was in the first stanza. He observes her more steadily in all her humanness as she experiences the ups and downs of life. She is a real person to him, not an illuminated spirit which startles him out of everyday life. In Stanza 1 she was a “Phantom” (Line 1), but now she is a “Creature” (Line 17), a real flesh-and-blood woman with her own distinctive personality and way of being in the world. Wordsworth and Mary are thus, at this point in the poem, laying the foundations for a deep and lasting relationship.

In Stanza 3, the tone shifts. Mary is now presented as a mature woman capable of meeting all the demands placed on her in life. The poet observes her with admiration and appreciation—not in the excited way he did in the first stanza, but “with eye serene” (Line 21). He has matured too. If she was a “Phantom” (Line 1) and “Apparition” (Line 3) in Stanza 1 and a “Creature” (Line 17) in Stanza 2, she is now “A Traveller between life and death” (Line 24). She is well equipped for the journey of life, since she has “Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill” (Line 26). These virtues are a marked improvement from the “Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles” (Line 20) which characterized her in the second stanza.

Wordsworth’s outlook on life in the final stanza of the poem is arguably more sober, as he emphasizes the qualities the woman will need to get through it. Adversity will likely come at some point, but he is confident she will weather it and help others to do so as well. After all, she has the rare ability to “warn, to comfort, and command” (Line 28).